ISRO reaches for Mars

The Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, has declared its ambition to reach for Mars.

The new entrant joins already declared organisations such as Roskosmos and NASA. Japan and China are also expected to throw in their hats and ESA is interested in performing a joint mission with NASA.

Before ISRO even starts working on Mars, however, its eyes are on a follow up to their recent Moon probe Chandrayaan-1. The new probe, Chandrayaan-2 is expected to launch in 2013. ISRO will then attempt manned orbital missions in 2015 before considering a martian mission after that. Funding for starting preliminary research on the mission has been requested from government.